Paternal nicotine enhances fear memory, reduces nicotine administration, and alters hippocampal genetic and neural function in offspring.

ABSTRACT: Nicotine use remains highly prevalent with tobacco and e-cigarette products consumed worldwide. However, increasing evidence of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance suggests that nicotine use may alter behavior and neurobiology in subsequent generations. We tested the effects of chronic paternal nicotine exposure in C57BL6/J mice on fear conditioning in F1 and F2 offspring, as well as conditioned fear extinction and spontaneous recovery, nicotine self-administration, hippocampal cholinergic functioning, RNA expression, and DNA methylation in F1 offspring. Paternal nicotine exposure was associated with enhanced contextual and cued fear conditioning and spontaneous recovery of extinguished fear memories. Further, nicotine reinforcement was reduced in nicotine-sired mice, as assessed in a

SUBMITTER: Goldberg LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8442877 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature